Evaluation of the Suchey–Brooks Method for Aging Skeletons in the Balkans

Abstract

This study has been carried out to examine whether the Suchey-Brooks (S&B) methods could be successfully applied in age assessment of populations from the Balkans. The known-age sample consists of 33 females and 52 males pairs of pubic bones collected from the autopsy cases. Age estimation by S&B method showed an accuracy of 89.74% in males and 72.0% in females. Statistical analysis showed a positive correlation between the actual age of the investigated individuals and age phases obtained by the S&B method, although the mean values of the sixth age category differed significantly compared with the original model. The most reliable indicators in both sexes were the relief of the symphyseal surface, lipping, symphyseal rim, and dorsal margin. The discriminating power of these indicators was the least reliable in distinguishing S&B phases 2 and 3. Based on these results, the appropriate recommendations for aging Serbian populations are made. There was a good agreement between two observers (kappa=0.726).

Identification of victims from two mass-graves in Serbia: A critical evaluation of classical markers of identity

“…Similar findings have been reported in previous investigations of age at death among Balkan populations: in Srebrenican population only 42.4% of individuals were accurately aged [13]; investigation on Serbian population showed that there were significant difference between real age of the individuals and the values derived from Suchey-Brooks [14] and Iscan and Loth [15] for older age categories of both males and females. Testing on other populations [16][17][18][19][20] also found poor performance in aging skeletal material due presumably to inter-population variation, indicating the necessity to introduce local anthropological standards for age assessment.…”

Gradients of occlusal wear in hunter‐gatherers and agriculturalists

“…Age was estimated for each individual using pubic symphysis (Brooks and Suchey, 1990) and auricular surface (Lovejoy et al, 1985). When each of these methods are used alone, they have a high rate of accuracy (72% for the pubic symphysis, Djurić et al, 2007;and 76% for the auricular surface, Bedford et al, 1993). When these two methods are used in conjunction, the reliability is even higher: 78% (Lovejoy et al, 1985;Ubelaker, 1989;Buikstra and Ubelaker, 1994).…”

New approach to age estimation of male and female adult skeletons based on the morphological characteristics of the acetabulum

“…However, it is essential in physical anthropology and forensic and osteoarchaeological sciences. Most of the research formulating and evaluating skeletal aging techniques focused on the os coxae (i.e., auricular surface and pubic symphysis) have demonstrated low accuracy and high bias when the methodology is used on different populations [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. These results have highlighted the necessity of increasing research to better understand age markers related to biology, designing new predictive models, and finding new age markers.…”